Kelly Rowland Ready to Reunite With Alcoholic Father After 20 Years

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Kelly Rowland was separated from her alcoholic father at seven, but she is willing to forgive him and reunite this Christmas for the first time in 20 years.

The singer and U.K. judge on “The X Factor” spoke on the show about the importance of forgiveness, and why she was willing to grant it to her father.

"It's really important just to forgive my father,” Rowland said on the U.K. "X Factor." “I want to meet him this Christmas, because now is the time, because tomorrow's not promised to us.”

Rowland’s 65-year-old father, Christopher, publicly asked for his daughter’s forgiveness in a statement last year.

"Kelly, I love you with all my heart,” Christopher said. “Please forgive me and let me be your dad again.”

The father of the Grammy-award-winning singer explained his past that separated him from his daughter.

"I lost my job at a transportation company, sank into a depression about money and began drinking more and more,” Rowland’s father said. “The failure to provide for my family fuelled an anger that I will be ashamed of until my dying day. It wasn't physical between me and Kelly's mom, but there were many days and nights when Kelly would be bawling her eyes out.”

Rowland admitted that she wasn’t happy with her father’s public declaration.

"He reached out to me, saying he wanted to see me but it's unfortunate he did it so publicly," the singer said, according to contactmusic.com.

However, she admitted that forgiving her father was the only way she could heal from a painful past.

"I think it's important to forgive people and we move on, we have to,” Rowland said. “The pain is there, of course it will be there, and it's important to know that forgiveness is the first step towards healing it all."